Talent Experience – Key for becoming employer of choice!

Managing talents; Just like any other user group

For over ten years I’ve had the honor of being part of exciting conversations in regards to what should be measured with an employer brand. What will provide sustainable impact on reputation truly? What are key KPI’s to measure for standing well towards recruitment competitors?

Having a background in internet as well as branding, I’ve always had a huge interest for Digital business development, research and analytics and the last few years I’ve had the opportunity to work more with Digital strategy, social media and business intelligence. The more nerdy I became with analytics, metrics and web analysis there was one thing that truly opened my eyes; how seldom users take decisions in line with their needs / outspoken desires.

A talent may state that an employer is a preferred one in a survey but when it comes down to it, it might not be the one he applies for. The same goes for any kind of online consumer behavior. And a talent is a user or consumer if you may, as any other. There is no difference. And users consumer buyer behavior does not go hand in hand with their need at all times. In fact, in today’s fast moving world where alternatives are everywhere and where top class experiences grant them ideas of what they want, their preferences are built up along the customer experience designed for them. Same goes for talents. A perfect storyline at the perfect timing, in the location where the talent is in the right state of mind and with a messaging and an innovative, exciting experience could make the user take a decision he could not predict himself. Thus it is clear that it is not about your need, it is about your behavior!

I’ve discussed this several times in both lectures, at events, fairs and at my blog but it can’t be repeated enough. Everything is about how a person acts, what his choices are in regards to his alternatives and foremost the value he experiences between in his journey around his alternatives. A talent makes his mind up during this journey. Being part of several user persona studies and Digital social media strategies, it was clear how users took decisions not in line with their actual outspoken need beforehand, an entire 62% of times during their experience.

These statistics tell why employers must understand what content your preferred talent groups -actually- engage with, rather than what they look for primarily. Employers must also understand the preferred user journey of your recruitment target groups. Reason is that things outside your preferred talents user journey will not lead them to take the decisions you want, if they even interact with your content at all. You need to put information into a context, onto a location and packaged in such a way that it becomes a natural part of your recruitment target groups user journey so that it does not come out as a “forced action”.

A good example is that even attractive employers have noticed since long that people are unwilling to fill out complex online résumés at their corporate websites. “Why aren’t we getting better applications? We are on top of most employer image rankings.” Being attractive means you will be getting applications but the right ones? The right ones know their value and they are not interested in breaking their preferred user journey. The better and more ideal, the more picky they are. Once again: Understand what they want to experience, where and how. Provide it.

A brand is all about reach and engagement. Reaching the right people is crucial to ever have a chance of a dialogue or a relevant conversation going on. Already here most employers fail. It isn’t hard to be seen, but it is hard to be attractive – for the right people. And how do you know who have noticed you? Through seeing who engage with you. It is all about the engagement when it comes to an end. Investing your employer brand money without having relevant results of people engaging, means you will be outclassed or outnumbered by tons of new offers or experiences only the day after. That is why generalized adverts hardly provide value. That is why your storyline is so important. That is why the timing and understanding a recruitment target groups user journey is crucial.